Zhiyi

Dzieła

• ok. 594Wielkie wyciszenie i kontemplacja (Mohe zhiguan)

  Wykłady o medytacji, w których wyciszenie i wgląd prowadzą do ujrzenia potrójnej prawdy w każdej pojedynczej chwili myśli.

Stanowisko

Zhiyi built the first comprehensive Chinese system of Buddhist thought. From Nagarjuna’s verse equating dependent arising with emptiness, provisional designation and the middle way, he developed the threefold truth: every phenomenon is at once empty, provisionally real and the middle that unites both, none existing without the others. Hence “three thousand worlds in a single moment of thought”: each instant of mind contains all realms of existence, from hells to buddhahood. He ordered the many sutras into periods and methods of teaching, culminating in the Lotus Sutra, and joined doctrine to meditation as calming and insight (zhiguan). His school passed to Japan as Tendai, on which Nichiren later drew.

Życie i kontekst

Zhiyi was born in 538 in the Jingzhou region into a family of officials. Orphaned young, he became a monk in his late teens and from 560 studied under the meditation master Huisi. He taught in Jinling, the Chen capital, then from 575 spent ten years on Mount Tiantai, which named his school. The future Sui emperor Yang honoured him as Zhizhe, “Wise One”. He died in 597.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra (Fahua xuanyi, lectured 593, recorded by his disciple Guanding)
• Great Calming and Contemplation (Mohe zhiguan, lectured 594, recorded by Guanding)